Stone Spheres of Costa Rica Granted UNESCO World Heritage Status

Costa Rica is making news in 2014 – from the thrilling World Cup 2014 playoffs in Brazil to the United Nations recognizing several historic sites in southern Costa Rica for World Heritage status.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added four pre-Colombian sites located in the southern region of Costa Rica to its list of World Heritage locations at the end of June 2014.

The archeological sites of Finca 6, Batambal, El Silencio, and Grijalba-2 in the Diquís Delta of the Osa Peninsula are where mysterious stone spheres crafted by ancient peoples have been found.

“The spheres are distinctive for their perfection, their number, size and density, and their placement in their original locations. Their preservation from the looting that befell the vast majority of archeological sites in Costa Rica has been attributed to the thick layers of sediment that kept them buried for centuries,” stated UNESCO.

Approximately 300 giant, nearly perfectly-formedspheresof granite-like igneous rock have been discovered in southern Costa Rica, starting in the 1930s when jungle was being cleared for banana plantations. Their origin, exact age and history are still a mystery, although archeologists tentatively date the spheres to between 500 and 1500 AD. The spherical stones range in diameter from 0.7 meters (2.3 feet) up to 2.57 meters (8.5 feet), with the largest weighing 16 tons.

Man-made by an indigenous people who disappeared long ago and left no written records, it is thought they were created by ancestors of the indigenous Boruca people in Costa Rica. The spheres’ origin and purpose have sparked international attention. Scientists suspect they were used to represent astronomical constellations, for delineation of tribal areas, or served as a place of worship and gathering.

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